NHL

Rangers’ McDonagh regains top form in Game 5 win

PITTSBURGH — Welcome back, Ryan McDonagh.

The Rangers’ No. 1 defenseman finally played like it on Friday night, and it only took impending elimination to bring it out.

Down 3-1 in their best-of-seven, second-round series against the Penguins, McDonagh was a force at both ends of the ice while the Blueshirts staved off the summer for at least one more game, taking a 5-1 Game 5 win at the Consol Energy Center.

“For me, tonight, I don’t want to say it was the first time we really saw Ryan McDonagh in the playoffs, but that’s the way I know he can play [and] that’s the way we need him to play,” said coach Alain Vigneault, whose team will face another do-or-die game on Sunday night at the Garden. “He’s not hurt, and he needs to play that way if we want to continue.”

McDonagh missed the final five games of the regular season with a left-shoulder injury, but returned for Game 1 of the team’s first-round series against the Flyers. He played all seven games, and the first four of this series looking like a shadow of his former self.

Yet for this one, he was a force in a game-high 26:53 of ice time, scoring a power-play goal on a wicked slap shot from the point and adding an assist on the game-opening goal of Chris Kreider’s, also on a power play.

“Just trying to skate,” McDonagh said, “and use my legs as much as possible, both offensively and defensively.”

Late in the first period, with the Rangers holding a 2-0 lead, Martin St. Louis slipped and turned the puck over to the seemingly indomitable Evgeni Malkin for a clear breakaway. From the side came McDonagh, stretching out and poking the puck away in a signature move that was commonplace for him in the regular season.

“Just trying to stay in their face a little bit more,” McDonagh said. “You see when they have time, those big guys like to make plays when they have time and ice.

“So right from the start, trying to focus on skating — skating hard and being tough to play against.”


The Rangers power play went 2-for-3, a shocking change of events from their previous 36 opportunities, all goalless.

“Not sure we did a lot of different things,” Vigneault said about the man-advantage, now 5-for-47 in the postseason. “I just thought we were able to finish.”

The first goal from Kreider came when he batted in a rebound, and the second from McDonagh was a blast from the point that was on a string to the top-corner.

“I think we’ve been doing some good things on the power play, and it’s hard when you see that looming statistic,” Kreider said. “But it’s nice when you get one.”


The Rangers had Derek Dorsett come in up front for Dan Carcillo, and John Moore replaced Raphael Diaz on the back end. … The Penguins played without top-four defenseman Brooks Orpik, replaced by Robert Bortuzzo.